I have just downloaded a PDF magazine. It comes as double pages. That is, the first page is a single A4 portrait page, the second and third pages are two a4 pages combined into an A3 landscape page, and so on. Now I have tried to view it on a number of ebook readers on the iPad but non of them can handle two pages side by side. I want to read in portrait mode, and read one page at a time.

In portrait mode if I view a double page it squishes it up to take just half the screen. If I zoom in, the zoom resets back to small when I change to the next page.

There seem to be hundreds of ebook readers out there. Anyone found one that handles double a4 pages?

(I’ve tried iBooks, Kindle, Blio, Kobo and iPdf and none of them work!)

4 Responses to “HELP! Anyone found a good iPad PDF ebook reader?”

Try Notability which has a number of interesting properties.
Notability is first and foremost a versatile note taking app that can create PDFs.

You can use Notability to annotate and merge existing PDFs plus you can create all kinds of new pages on the fly.

There is a switch top right that converts Notability to READER ONLY mode so you can move around without modifying content, since it was designed with ZOOM in mind for creation you can zoom and it stays at whatever you set it until you change. ZOOM is pinch and twist. Flip to horizontal same zoom.

I tested it with my own custom PDFS that have some pages created to be vertical and others to be horizontal in the same PDF. It works in the manner you desire.

Plus you can really zoom in to examine really big PDF pages or fine details on your existing PDFs.

One tap on the PDF page reveals menu to change to edit mode.

You can create text edit boxes while zoomed in, add colorful notes in various fonts or normal hand writing, then zoom to normal where you may barely read it but at any time you can zoom on the IPad to a comfortable view.

I also use iAnnotate, PDFProvider, GoodReader, and a dozen others for PDFs. Each has a strong point but over all Notability after you understand it is the goto app for its flexibility.

TAKING NOTES

I can set NOTABILITY to record while I write or type. It will continue to record while I switch to other apps for copy and paste including iBooks.

I can take a photo of the speaker or a demonstration with a tap or two right inside Notability on the fly. I can add maps, screenshots, online content etc, while a talk is in progress.

I have seen similar apps on powerful computers but it mind blowing that you can do all this and more with a thin iPad all day long.

Since I can add new pages, delete old pages, and export the files as paper or PDFs I’m quite comfortable with PDFs as the perfect medium to exchange data with other OS and devices through the cloud. The recording can ride along in a zip package if exported to others.

Btw did I mention while files are in Notability’s format you can hit play then jump with a tap anywhere in your doc to hear what was being said when you added that element to your notes. SLICK!